Actress Griffith and her husband, actor Banderas, arrive at 84th Academy Awards in Hollywood.
Actress Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas before their divorce REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

Veteran Hollywood actress Melanie Griffith has opened up about a serious neurological disorder that affects people of all ages. During the Women's Brain Health Initiative on Wednesday, 18 October, she revealed that she had been diagnosed with epilepsy six years back but her divorce helped her heal from the health condition.

During the discussion, the Lolita actress revealed that she suffered a string of grand mal seizures during the Cannes Film Festival in 2011. "They [doctors] said it was an anomaly — they didn't know what it was. The last two that I had I was on a boat outside of Cannes — on a big yacht — and I was extremely stressed out. Every seizure that I had was at a point when I was extremely stressed," she said to the panel.

"I had two seizures, one they took me off the boat. I had this major grand mal seizure, and they took me to the hospital in Cannes and then brought me back to the boat. And then I had another seizure and I went back. They did the EEG and started to look at it seriously. When I came back [to the United States], I was diagnosed with epilepsy and nobody had said to me over a period of 20 years, no one paid enough attention to even diagnose me," the 60-year old actress added.

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However, she revealed that her neurological condition is under control and has not had a seizure since last four years. The veteran actress believes stress is the major cause of the condition and credits her divorce to actor Antonio Banderas. "I got divorced which is the real healer for me," she said to the audience. The couple got divorced in 2014, 18 years after their wedding.

Griffith claims that she is not stressed since last three years and this has helped her curb the seizures.

"I'm not stressed anymore. It's been three years. As women, we take on family, we get the husband, we have the life, we have the children, we take care of the house, we also go to work, we can't sleep at night because we are up with the kids. I don't think I've slept for 35 years. I still don't sleep; it's totally f***ed up my sleep cycle."